U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,849, issued Dec. 10, 1991 and assigned to the assignee of this invention, describes a modular fuel sender for a motor vehicle including an in-tank reservoir which captures hot return fuel from an engine of the vehicle. A fuel pump in the reservoir pumps fuel to the engine and a secondary pump pumps new fuel from the tank into the reservoir. A float valve opens a recirculation flow path from the reservoir to the inlet of the secondary pump when the reservoir is full. In that circumstance, the secondary pump recirculates reservoir fuel in preference to new fuel from the fuel tank thereby to prevent overflow of hot return fuel from the reservoir. A modular fuel sender according to this invention has advantageous low-fuel performance characteristics not attainable with the modular fuel sender described in the aforesaid U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,849.